Women's Tennis Sends Three to Compete in ITA Texas Regional

CORPUS CHRISTI – The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi women's tennis team will compete this weekend in the Women's USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championships in Forth Worth, Texas. The largest Division I tournament in the state of Texas starts Thursday, Oct. 17 and continues through Monday, Oct. 21 on the campus of TCU.

"I believe the Texas Region is the strongest region in Division I tennis," Director of Tennis Steve Moore said. "This is one of the strongest college tennis tournaments and is one of the highest-level college tournaments in the United States."

The women's region saw nine teams rank in the top 75 at one point last year with Texas A&M - Corpus Christi ranked at No. 60 in the nation in Division I. Moore, who was selected by his peers to be the regional chairman for the ITA Tennis Region, will send three players from the women's team and three players from the men's team to compete at the prestigious event.

Representing the women's team are seniors Stefania Nicolae and Sandra Burges and sophomore Maider Martin. Nicolae has reached the third round two consecutive years while Martin and Burges also followed suit advancing to the third round last year. Nicolae was crowned the 2013 Marco & Co. Catering Islanders Open women's singles champion after she topped Martin in the finals 6-4, 6-3. It was the second consecutive year the two players faced each other in the singles finals.

Nicolae received the No. 16 seed in the women's singles draw and will face Jacobea Junger of UTSA in the round of 128 at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The winner will advance to the round of 64 at 3:30 p.m.

Martin will take on Ansley Boarman of Abilene Christian in the round of 128 at 11:30 a.m. The winner will face No. 6 seed Jordaan Sanford of Baylor University at 4:30 p.m. in the round of 64.

Prior to their singles matches, Nicolae and Martin will team up in doubles play against Dominique Harmath and Alison Ho of Rice at 8 a.m. in the round of 64. The winner will play at 1:30 p.m. in the round of 32.

Burges, who teamed up with Chelsea Horan to win the women's doubles title of the Marco & Co. Catering Islanders Open, will play Shannon Beckett of Texas State in singles action at 11 a.m. The winner is set to play No. 15 Elizabeth Begley of Texas at 3:30 p.m. in the round of 64.

Along with the women's success, the Islanders men's team has held strong showings over the years with both Laurent Montoisy and Dmitry Novikov reaching the quarterfinals for the men's team. Last year, on the men's side, the Texas Region saw four teams ranked in the top 20 in the Division I Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings and eight teams in the top 60, including the Islanders at No. 51 nationally.

The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi men's tennis team will travel to Waco, Texas, to compete in the USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championships on Saturday, Oct. 19. The event will continue through Tuesday, Oct. 22 on the campus of Baylor University. Moore will send Kevin Bettendroffer, Ricardo Mayagoitia and either Guillaume Rauseo or Javier Pujol to compete. Bettendroffer captured the men's singles title of the Marco & Co. Catering Islanders Open with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Mayagoitia. Rauseo and Bettendroffer teamed up in doubles play to win the crown of the Islanders Open while Pujol won the consolation title of the men's singles final. The men's singles and doubles draws of the Texas Region will be posted on Friday.

There are 12 regions nationally in the ITA and the winner and the runner-ups of this tournament will represent their region at the National Indoors held in New York at the U.S. Open.

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